A new supply chain report says that Samsung Display is now able to mass produce the complex screens for the forthcoming OLED MacBook Pro, and should start shipping to Apple soon.

The long-rumored MacBook Pro with a higher quality display based on twin-stack OLED technology (what Apple refers to as tandem OLED) has recently been said to be delayed from late 2026 to early 2027. But that was because of the global chip shortage, and reportedly there were now also difficulties with mass producing the screen.

According to The Elec, those problems were specifically because of the complexity of manufacturing a large, 14-inch or 16-inch OLED display. But the difficulties have reportedly been surmounted, to the extent that Samsung Display is currently seeing yields of over 90%.

Certain individual elements of the construction are even reaching a yield of 95%, which the industry refers to as the "golden yield." Even the 90% figure is one that the trade is said to accept as being ready for mass production.

"The current stage where the glass input has just begun," an industry official is reported to have said (in translation), "it will take at least a month to [ramp up] the customer's mass production process, and it will take at least a month to ship."

Samsung Display is now expected to ship its OLED generation 8.6 screen panels from June. Reportedly, it will ultimately produce around two million during 2026.

Manufacturing difficulties

The difficulty in mass producing an OLED screen for a MacBook Pro, compared to the iPhone, is partly in the size. But also such screens will typically be in use for much longer per day than an iPhone.

Apple also demanded that its suppliers use what's called twin-stack OLED. It means having two OLED screens placed atop one another, and the result is better quality and a much longer overall lifespan.

Twin-stack OLED is naturally more costly than a single layer and also much more complex to manufacture. As a result, Samsung Display reportedly refused to produce it in the early 2020s since at that point, only Apple was demanding the use of twin-stack.

But by March 2022, Samsung was said to have reconsidered and begun developing the technology. It would then first debut in Apple's M4 iPad Pro, which was launched in May 2024.